A towering beacon, Pablo’s Elise Floor Lamp lights the way forward with a backward glance. Conceptually a tribute to the machine age, the lamp reveals its functionality with understated and honest intent. A machined-aluminum base conceals the light source and provides ample ballast, anchoring the towering frosted acrylic diffuser. A fully dimmable light source, in the Pablo tradition, the classic cylinder shape adapts to a variety of spaces. Offered in a range of sizes to be deployed individually or in multiples as necessary.

“Lighting is undergoing a revolution at the moment,” says Venezuelan-born designer/entrepreneur Pablo Pardo, who’s leading the disruption with the mix of cutting-edge technology and always-cool minimalism behind his signal brand Pablo. As he puts it, nowadays, “you can build smarts right into the lamp.” Internationally recognized, the San Francisco company was started 20-odd years ago and now Pablo racks up design awards regularly for its more than 40 technology-driven and elegantly sparse collections worldwide.

The lighting industry thought-leader credits his upbringing in a family of artists and engineers for the always forward-facing Pablo style, which embraces innovations such as LEDs and flat-panel light. “Lighting is also shrinking in size: LEDs are so small that you can put them almost anywhere,” he adds. “So the standard iconography of a lamp with a shade is being upended.”